That is such a crap statement. Does he plan to personally speak with and resolve every customer’s complaint? Is he going to personally reimburse them for their wasted time? No. I hope he does get fired.

In other headlines, I’m taking personal responsibility for pie. All the blame for pie belongs on me.

If all their MD-80s were passing inspections, would they be cancelling this many flights? I doubt it. It would be interesting to know how many of them are failing. My guess is more than a few, but I doubt AA will ever admit this willingly.

do the math on the cost of an average ticket per class on a boeing 757 flight from jfk to lax and you’ll get pissed off. include all staff on the plane and four clerks at the desk. the baggage handlers are paid by the airport not the airline. they pay rent and hanger fees. use high estimates on what everyone you actually come into contact with on any given flight high estimates of tickets on “cheap” days and times and you will be seriously pissed off if you do it right.

i’ve now cemented the idea in my head that corporations should have to submit accounting summaries and justify expenses to any customer who asks, not just shareholders.

OT: I heard the Frontier Air bankruptcy news, but thankfully it’s not a total shut-down. They needed some protection while they kept operating and possibly sue their credit card handlers for screwing with their cash flow.

American is responsible for their own problems here, but the FAA bureaucracy is definitely a contributing factor. The FAA makes the military look like the model of efficiency.

My brother-in-law is a private aircraft mechanic. It is not uncommon for him to have to deal with hours of paperwork for a 15 minute repair. He nearly lost his license last year when an FAA inspector accused him of not performing an FAA mandated maintenance. It took more than 6 months and thousands of dollars in lawyer fees to convince to the FAA that the inspector didn’t know what he was talking about. That particular mandate that wasn’t performed? It was for a completely different model of aircraft.

*the baggage handlers are paid by the airport not the airline.*

Where did you get that info?!?! My husband is a baggage handler and he and all the other baggage handlers are employed by the airlines. Skycaps are employed by the airports – but they aren’t baggage handlers.

I don’t buy that idea. The other large carriers would be more than happy to pick up the excess capacity. All of them have reserve aircraft that have been mothballed within the last few years; it’d take a few weeks to get them out of storage and properly maintained, but Delta, United, Continental and Northwest would love to have the extra business (I’d wager).

But that doesn’t factor in the difference in time between flying and driving. You can only average 60 MPH on the road, and 600 MPH in the air. Even if you add 2 hours for waiting at the airport, you’ll save 4 hours on a 400 mile trip. Even if you only value your time at $10/an hour, that’s another $0.10/mile in opportunity cost that you save by flying.